A New Year- A New Rocking Dog Quilt

Yes, the new year has brought with it the quilt making bug! So, a new Rocking Dog quilt is in the making.

As ever, I am using fabrics from material mountain. Many of the fabrics I have stashed are vintage finds, whilst others have been found in the remnant bins of shops such as John Lewis. Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to find some gorgeous Designer’s Guild velvet banded silks and embroidered linens for £3.95 a generous piece! For this latest quilt I will just need to go out and buy backing fabric and cotton wadding. I love to use pillow ticking or ginghams for backing and framing my patchwork. Ikea, John Lewis and Laura Ashley all carry a good selection of ginghams.

Thus far I have selected fabrics, cut 22cm squares (using cutting mat, template, ruler and rotary cutter) and laid out my fabrics (eight squares x nine squares). I have gathered my patchwork rows together and clipped them together with bulldog clips. These neat piles now expectantly wait on my work bench. Beloved Bernina will soon be whirring away to make the quilt a reality. I will sew to Future Islands.

Some of the squares have vintage lace to attach and then I will sew the squares in each row together. Rows completed, I will press the seams of each square before embarking on sewing the rows together. It all grows very quickly. Further along the line I will enjoy sewing vintage buttons onto the quilt. These little beauties will not only be decorative, but will help secure the layers of the quilt together. One of the last jobs will be to sew a suitable verse or quote to the quilt. I hope i’ll think of something beautifully suitable.

I know many of you will worry about my lack of colour and pattern control, but after all it is horses for courses as they say!

Watch this space for the finished article.

PS. Is there anyone out there up for going to see Rick Astley in Bath 14th April? (is this a very sad request!?) x